Then and Now
by Spirit 0f Chaos
Summary: Nate is over 200 years old. He has made many choices in his time, and each one he has lived with, whether the consequences were good or ill. No choice has haunted him, however, like the one he is about to make; before he makes it, there is someone he has to see...


"Blue my legs are killing me. Can't this wait till morning?" Piper whined as they climbed the hill just outside of Sanctuary, passing two half-decayed skeletons slumped over the remains of a suitcase. The sun had just fallen out of sight behind the horizon to their left and stars had begun to shine through the heavy cloud cover.

"Just a bit further." Nate murmured, only half paying attention to his companion's discomfort. His movements were mechanical, automatic as his mind's eye relived the events that, to him, only occurred mere months ago. In reality it had been well over 200 years since he had ran up this hill and passed the couple arguing over their luggage… he had barely looked at them.

Rolling her eyes and hunching her shoulders against the cold, Piper increased her pace to fall into step beside him. "Where are we going anyways?" She looked forward to the rusted chain fence and massive billboard which teetered precariously on its perch. Several skeletons were littered at the gate, including one inside the fence that looked like it had been ripped apart. Nate stopped suddenly at the body enough that Piper walked a step extra before realizing he had stopped. "What's up?"

Nate stared down at the bones, his mind's eye replaying the day 200 years ago. "I… I saw this guy. He was guarding the gate, in power armor…"

"Judging by how beat up he is, seems like scavvers looted that armor a long time ago." Piper snickered before looking at her lover's expression. Instantly the smile slid off her face and she swallowed uncomfortably. "Oh… sorry."

Shaking his head, the Sole Survivor cleared his throat and pushed forward. After a second's hesitation, Piper followed. The duo walked in silence until they finally come to the top of the cliff and Piper's exhaustion, which had been fading in again, vanished once more. "Whoa is that… a Vault? In the ground?" The reporter rushed forward suddenly, turning a circle in the center of the grand Vault door implanted in the ground. After a moment she brushed away some ash on the ground to reveal the number- "Vault 111." She read aloud, gaze snapping up to the blue jumpsuit a few feet away. "This is your Vault."

Nate only nodded and climbed into a nearby trailer. A moment later a loud creak emanated from the door at her feet, causing Piper to flinch violently. Nate cantered forward and took a small jump to the door that had already dropped a foot or so beneath the ground. Catching Piper's look, he decided he had remained silent for long enough. "Yes, this is the Vault I was in during the war, and… what came after."

Piper studied his face carefully, concern etched in her own expression. "Why are we here Blue?"

Nate avoided her gaze, choosing instead to study the rusted walls. "I… there's something I want to give you, Piper. But there's something I have to show you first." His eyes met hers for a moment before pulling away again. Thankfully the elevator came to a bone-jarring stop, pausing whatever Piper was going to say next. However as they turned to the gate which struggled to open she wordlessly slipped her hand into his. He didn't pull away.

Finally the gate rose to a point where they could duck under it. "So… paint a reporter a picture. What was entering the Vault like?" Piper asked cautiously.

"It was… panic." Nate recalled, looking around the room. "When we got down here the bombs had just dropped. Another second and I probably wouldn't be here. All the Vault-Tec employees were already down here, smiling and waving us in like absolutely nothing was wrong." He pushed open the swinging gate and walked by an overturned table and skeleton. "This is where they gave us our Vault Suits."

"Hey so this is where you became Blue?" She punched his shoulder, attempting a light-hearted tone.

He smiled and chuckled slightly. "Yeah… I guess it is." His eyes lingered on the jumpsuit-clad skeleton before he mentally shook himself. "Let's keep going."

"Sure." Piper glanced around the entrance room for another moment. "So what happened next?"

"They took us deeper into the Vault. Kept talking about… something, I can't remember. It all kind of blurred together." He stepped into the main hall, pushing aside the contents of a spilled toolbox. All I could remember was that everything above us was gone… but we were alive."

"Must have been confusing for you." The reporter replied softly.

He nodded solemnly. "It was, but I was pretty shell-shocked. It didn't really register like it should have." They turned a corner and walked into a room filled with strange pods. Nate's voice died in his throat as his eyes instantly found the one cryo pod that meant anything to him.

Piper's eyes widened as she crossed her arms again. "Are these the things that kept you alive? Cryo p-pods?" She sniffed and leaned over to look into the closest one. "Explains the cold… And everyone in these pods died except you?" After a few seconds when no response came she turned to look. "Blue?"

Nate stood a few feet away, pressing the buttons on the second last pod before standing back to let it open. Walking over to his side, she watched the hatch open to reveal a brown haired woman in her early thirties slumped over and covered in ice. A closer look revealed an imperfection in the perfectly preserved face- a single dark red hole in her forehead.

"Is, is that who I think it is?" Piper asked in horror, looking from the frozen corpse to the living, breathing man. Concern immediately overtook any other emotion at the sight of his face, and she reached out to touch his shoulder. "You ok?"

Nate stared for a long time at the body of his wife before taking a shaky breath and turning to face her. "Yeah… this was my wife- Nora." He stepped aside to allow Piper to get a better look at her.

Piper took his place and glanced over the dead woman, noticing that even though the cryo pod had been opened up the ice sheet continued to cling to the body. "She's… beautiful." The reporter stammered, wondering internally what one was supposed to say when seeing the dead wife of your lover.

"You know why I gave you that interview?" She shook her head. "Your eyes. They're like hers… guess I was kind of vulnerable then…"

"Strange man walking up to me at the same moment I couldn't get in, in the brightest blue suit I've ever seen… you were like fate. And I decided to run off with him into the Commonwealth… and I guess I developed a bit of a crush on him." She blushed and looked away slightly before realizing she was looking at Nora's body and looked the other way.

Nate took another look at his former wife's body before sighing and fishing down the collar of his jumpsuit and pulling out a ring on a scrap of string. Piper's eyes widened as she watched him take the necklace off and place it in her hand. "I want to give this to you Piper. Not because you've replaced Nora, but because… you've been a good friend to me Piper. You've given me hope that even though the world is completely bombed to hell there are still good people out here."

"What about…" Piper couldn't bring herself to look at the corpse of his late wife.

"At the risk of sounding clichéd… she'd want me to move on. She certainly wouldn't want me to be in this desolate wasteland looking for Shaun all by myself." He looked longingly at the body before nodding resolutely. "I'll always miss her, but she's gone now. I can't dwell on the past. Especially when that past is 200 years ago."

Piper nodded before leaning forward to tenderly kiss his cheek. "Nora was a lucky woman." She said, her voice high and slightly constricted. After a brief cough it returned to normal. "I'm going to take good care of you for her."

Nate smiled. "She'd appreciate that." He turned to the control panel and pressed the button, watching the pod close again with an air of finality.

Piper watched the hatch shut with him and didn't dare speak, lest she break some silent agreement. Finally she could bear it no longer. "So, um… can we go back to Sanctuary now? I'm really tired."

Nate allowed himself to smile and turned back to her. "Sure thing Piper. Just one last errand to run…" His mind started to stray to the other thing he promised he'd be back for… and his collection of bobby pins jangled merrily in his pocket.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Wow… it's been a really long time since I've written anything. As such, wow this is going to suck. But I ran across this tidbit of dialogue in Fallout 4 and had to put my spin on it. Thanks for reading, chiiildren! This is LOVEOFTHEGAME117, OWWW, and you're reading his rushed Fallout 4 fanfiction! In a fanfiction free Wasteland, we're here… for you.


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